Jefferson Forest’s Heilingenstadt stymies Heritage

Chris Humphreys
Published: May 23, 2008

Heritage entered Friday’s Seminole District baseball championship having scored a combined 31 runs in the first two games of the tournament, including a 22-6 defeat of Rustburg on Wednesday in the semifinal.
And, it looked like the Pioneers were on their way to another offensive explosion when Heritage’s two and three hitters Gregg Chewning and Eric Coleman singled in the top of the first.
But Jefferson Forest sophomore lefty Eric Heiligenstadt got James Womack to ground into a double to end the threat and Cavaliers went on to hold Heritage to just one run and claim the district title with a 7-1 victory.
The Cavaliers (17-4) had already received a Region III bid and will host the winner of Monday’s Northside/Broadway game on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
“We talked about it all week that we wanted to defend that title that we won last year and keep the roll going into next week,” Forest coach Ryan Gilleland said.
The Pioneers (16-6) also had already sewn up a Region III bid and will host Stuarts Draft on Monday at 6 p.m.
“(If) we had just gotten the offense going a little earlier it might have been a different game but give credit to Jefferson Forest’s pitching staff,” Heritage coach Paul Johnson said. “We had a chance to be there at the end.”
Heiligenstadt (6-0) dominated the Heritage pitchers for 5 1/3 innings. He allowed just four hits, walked none, hit one batter and struck out 11.
“I was pretty nervous,” Heiligenstadt said. “But, I knew we would come through. This is what we’ve been working for all year.”
From second inning until he was relieved with one out in the sixth, Heiligenstadt struck out ten of the 15 batters he faced. Only three batters reached base safely during that stretch.
“No one was bigger than Eric Heiligenstadt,” said Gilleland. “He gave up one earned run against probably the best offensive team in our district.”
While Jefferson Forest dodged a bullet in the first inning, Heritage dodged several in the first two.
The first four Cavaliers to come to plate in the bottom of the first reached safely but Pioneer starter James Carter limited the damage to just one run by retiring the next three batters on two strikeouts and a shallow fly ball.
JF took a 2-0 lead in the second when a two-out error by Pioneers shortstop Chewning allowed a run to score.
Heritage cut the Cavaliers’ lead to 2-1 in the fifth when Carter was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on Allen Seufert’s single.
The Pioneers threatened again in the sixth with Chewning’s one-out double to left center but JF’s Bobby Shelton relieved Heiligenstadt and struck out the next two batters to strand the potential tying run at second.
The Cavaliers bats finally caught fire in the bottom of the sixth as JF scored five runs on four hits and three walks.
In the five-run inning, Shelton and Shane Timberlake had RBI singles, Josh Huffman drew a bases loaded walk and Matt Wallman had two-out, two-run single.
Shelton worked out of a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the top of the seventh to earn the save.
“There was definitely some nerves,” Shelton said. “I’ve come into some pressure situations this year and sometimes I’ve done good and sometimes I’ve done bad. Luckily tonight was a good night.”
Rustburg defeated Amherst 16-10 in the consolation game that determined the seeding for Region III tournament.
The Red Devils travel to Fort Defiance on Monday for a 6 p.m. game.
The Lancers travel to William Byrd for a 5:30 p.m. game on Monday.
Amherst’s Ashton Paige was named the Seminole Player of the Year and Gilleland was named the coach of the year.
“I’m just glad we could do it for coach G while Thacker is out,” Shelton referring to the fact that Jim Thacker will return to Jefferson Forest head coaching position next year after taking this season off the watch his sons play at Roanoke College.